Scores like Williams’s Home Alone, Elfman’s Edward Scissorhands and Bruce Broughton’s Miracle on 34th Street have it, and so does The Polar Express. I’m a sucker for Christmas music, and all the wonderful clichés it brings: soaring brasses, magical strings, choirs, chimes and sleigh bells, and that overall sense of warmth and whimsy. Three cuts of Silvestri’s score – “Spirit of the Season”, “Seeing is Believing” and “Suite from The Polar Express” – appear on the Warner album, amounting to just over 12 minutes of orchestral music. The cantankerous but kindly conductor invites the boy on board to accompany several other children on a magical journey to prove that Santa does exist, and that the spirit of the season is alive and well in those who still believe.Ĭontinuing with the most fruitful directorial collaboration of his career, Alan Silvestri caps off a stellar year with one of the best outright scores of his career. However, late on Christmas Eve night, while the boy is lying in bed listening for the sound of reindeer hooves on the roof, he is amazed to discover a steam engine pulling up outside his bedroom window.

Using the revolutionary “motion capture” technique that brought Gollum to life in Lord of the Rings, state-of-the-art animation, and featuring Tom Hanks in a number of vocal roles, The Polar Express brings to life the adventures of a nameless little boy who has come to believe that Santa Claus does not exist. A film surely destined to be a future Christmas classic, Robert Zemeckis’s film version of Chris Von Allsberg’s children’s tale The Polar Express is one of the most anticipated films of late 2004.

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